Ten Bishops Call for Immediate Release of Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Champion Jimmy Lai

ROME — Ten Catholic bishops have called for the immediate and unconditional release of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, provoking the ire of Beijing-backed officials.

We call on the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to “immediately and unconditionally release Jimmy Lai,” the statement reads. “Mr. Lai’s persecution for supporting pro-democracy causes through his newspaper and in other forums has gone on long enough.”

“There is no place for such cruelty and oppression in a territory that claims to uphold the rule of law and respect the right to freedom of expression,” continues the text, which was signed by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Military Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, among others.

“In standing up for his beliefs and committing himself through his faith to challenge autocracy and repression, Jimmy Lai has lost his business, been cut off from his family, and has just surpassed 1,000 days in prison,” it states, “while facing the prospect of many more years of incarceration to come.

“He is 75 years old. He must be freed now,” it concludes.

The CCP-backed Hong Kong government responded predictably to the demands, calling the petition “misleading and slanderous” while accusing the prelates of “blatantly undermining” rule of law and interfering in Hong Kong affairs.

“The government firmly rejects and strongly disapproves of the fact-twisting remarks made by the foreign Catholic leaders to inappropriately interfere in Hong Kong’s internal affairs and the courts’ independent exercise of judicial power,” a government spokesman said, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP).

“Any person, regardless of his or her identity, who attempts to interfere with the judicial proceedings in Hong Kong in order to procure a defendant’s evasion of the criminal justice process, is blatantly undermining the rule of law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” he said.

Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok called the petition an “attempt to interfere with Hong Kong’s judicial system,” which completely violates the spirit of the rule of law and is “absolutely unacceptable in principle.”

“Our position is very clear,” Lam said. “No matter who you are, our position is always one of condemnation, disapproval and expression of our greatest determination to continue to do a proper job.”

Last month, directors of the Michigan-based Acton Institute held a premiere showing in Rome of The Hong Konger, a documentary film on the life of Jimmy Lai.

“Lai is a symbol of Hong Kong’s resistance to mainland China’s national security law that puts a stranglehold on the island’s natural right to protest its political overlords,” a media release declared.

“A Maoist child refugee, Lai’s rags-to-riches story tells the inspiring rise from a meat factory floor sweeper, to a textile merchant who became a fashion industry icon, an ardent Catholic convert, and eventually a billionaire media tycoon,” it said.

Portraying Lai as a modern martyr for democracy and freedom, the filmmakers said he has advocated tirelessly for democratic ideals “amidst China’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s waning autonomy since the British handover.”

“Despite his imprisonment, the forced sale of his Giordano clothing stores and the shuttering of Apple Daily, Lai remains a beacon of hope and resistance from the dark cell of his captivity,” they said.

In a scathing criticism last week of the Vatican’s current policy toward China and Hong Kong, religious freedom torch-bearer Nina Shea underscored the Holy See’s shameful silence regarding Lai’s imprisonment.

“The Vatican is mum about other injustices, including the cases of lay Catholic Jimmy Lai, who was arrested and tried by authorities after the newspaper he founded was shut down, and of a thousand other political prisoners in Hong Kong,” Shea noted.

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